Sunday Salon

Sunday Chat/Sunday Bookends: First snowfall/snowstorm and a variety of books to read

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 28 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Morning Chat where I ramble about what’s been going on in my world, what the rest of the family and I have been reading, watching, listening to, and what I’ve been writing.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.



What’s Been Occurring

We got snow this past week, but it was a weird storm. We got 6 or 7 inches in our little down, but a few miles up the road they got 10 or 12. My parents live about five miles away from us and they got about 4 or 5. The town three miles north of them received a dusting. The town 15 miles from us where we buy the bulk of our groceries received only rain.

It was a strange storm, needless to say. It wreaked havoc because the snow was very heavy and wet. It knocked down already dead Ash trees in our area (killed by the ash boar) and knocked them down onto lines, taking out power for many in the area. Our power has been flickering off and on since Friday night.

For some reason, we have no cell service right in town but at least my Wi-Fi calling works in the house. We aren’t sure if that is connected to the storm or not.

The snow, for all the chaos it caused, though, was very pretty.

I’m hoping future snows this winter will be less heavy and damaging. A few of our bushes and one of our trees was damaged. A big maple in front of us that we can’t currently afford to have cut down (this thing is one of the biggest maple trees I have ever seen in my life!) lost a limb. I was worried it might lose more and cause major damage to our house or our neighbors. Getting this thing cut down will have to be a priority in 2025.

I had hoped that the snow day would mean more time in front of the fire, reading a book. Sadly, I spent most of Friday watching Little Miss play in the snow, loading the woodstove with wood, cooking some dinner, and doing other odds and end chores. I did find a little time to read some, though, thankfully.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

I have been reading The Secret of the Wooden Lady by Carolyn Keene. It is, of course, a Nancy Drew Mystery. One of the early ones. Number 27 to be exact. It’s okay but I’m a little confused about the plot and who the wooden lady is. This one seems to be a bit all over the place. It’s not like anyone has ever called these early middle-grade books great literature, of course. The mysteries do hold up most of the time. This time around I don’t feel like this mystery is really capturing my attention like others have.

I also started Christy by Catherine Marshall last week and while I am only on Chapter 2, I am really enjoying it.

The Boy and I are reading The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his British Literature course. It is a bit slow getting into but then it really picks up.

This past week I finished two of the three novellas in an Amish romance/Christmas novella collection. I haven’t finished the third yet because the second one, honestly, wasn’t that great to me.

The collection was The Christmas Gathering with authors Shelley Sheppard Gray, Lenora Worth, and Rachel Good.

I’m not usually someone who reads Amish fiction, but that wasn’t the issue with the one novella. It just dragged and dragged and threw in way too many characters for a 12-chapter book.

My plans have changed a little bit on what I am reading next because first, my sister-in-law (brother’s wife) told me about a series and I decided I’d try it. That book is The Sweetness of the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. It is the first in the Flavia De Luce Mysteries.

Also, I had a book on hold on Libby and it became available yesterday. That book is Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood. It is the second book in The Marlow Murder Club series.

After those books, or while reading them, I’ll be adding A Quilt For Christmas by Melody Carlson, which I picked up from a recent library trip.

Little Miss and I are still reading And Then There Were Five from The Melendy series by Elizabeth Enright. We read that some nights before bed if we aren’t too tired. She is reading the second book in the Harry Potter series as well, but not every day.

The Husband just finished The Bounty Huntersby Elmore Leonard.

What We’ve Been Watching

The past week I watched Transformers One twice. I watched it first with Little Miss and The Boy and then we watched it as a family last night for The Husband’s birthday. The Transformers aren’t really my thing but growing up my friends loved them and I played with them some too so I do know a lot of the characters. Not like The Husband and The Boy do. Sheesh – the tiny little details they know is a little mind-blowing.

They know all the characters and storylines from the original shows and the ones in between, as well as the live action films and the comics.

Last Sunday, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I watched Chocolat during a watch party. That was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to when we do that again.

I finished reading over and rewriting parts of Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree Friday and it is now in the hands of my editor husband. From there it will be proofed. I’ll be looking for advanced readers for the book. If you are interested, you can sign up to read it before it comes out here.

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

This week I finally sat down and listened to another episode of the True Drew Podcast, which talks all about Nancy Drew – the books, the games, etc.

I also listened to a podcast by a homeschooling dad called The Life Without School. That was eye opening and interesting.

So what have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Sunday Bookends: Trying to beat the heat, reading a mix of genres, and old mystery shows

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 9 Comments


It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

What’s Been Occurring

As I wrote in my post yesterday, we have been in the middle of the heat wave like a lot of our country. Yesterday we visited my parents and found out Dad had been able to work on the pool and we could go for a swim.

So, Little Miss and I jumped in for a couple of hours, during which time I was reminded how out of shape I am and that my knee I smashed up three weeks ago is not completely healed yet. It is, however, much, much better.

On our way home a storm started to move in and this time, unlike Friday, the storm was an actual storm and dropped some rain on us and dropped the temps down into normal range for summer in Pennsylvania. It looks like we will have nicer temps this week. I never thought I’d be glad to see highs of 81 in the forecast.

High temps make me very sick so I hide inside a lot in the summer. Usually even seeing a high of 80 makes me antsy but the horrible heat showed me that 80 isn’t that bad after all.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor

The Sentence Is Death by Anthony Horowitz

The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father by Jim Wight

Return To Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright (reading with Little Miss)

I set Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery aside for now but will get back to it.

 Lord Edgware Dies: A Hercule Poirot Mystery by Agatha Christie

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

I listened to the majority of this on Audible and really enjoyed it. I really wanted to know the ending, though, so before bed last night I opened the book on my kindle since I can read faster that the narrator could read. I think I will go back and listen to the ending on Audible simply because I liked the narrator (David Colacci) so much.

The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes by Carolyn Keene

Ever Faithful by Karen Barnett

Dandelion Cottage by Carol Watson Rankin

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery



What We watched/are Watching

I’ve been watching the old 1970s Nancy Drew/Hard Boys show on YouTube, but I think it is also streaming on the Roku Channel.

The Husband made me watch a rerun of Jake And The Fat Man. I’m slightly scarred from it, but also the person who uploaded it to YouTube didn’t finish the episode, so I am traumatized and victimized because I don’t know how the episode ended – though they pretty much had their man already.

I made The Husband watch a movie of Diagnosis Murder that we found on YouTube after I saw a clip of the show earlier this week. I never watched it when it was on the air and I think I know why. The show stars Dick VanDyke and his son Barry and it’s okay but there are some seriously ridiculous elements to it. It is more of a cozy mystery show than anything hard hitting so I guess it is okay to have some ridiculousness.

I’m not sure I will watch more episodes.

I also watched a lot of Just A Few Acres Farm this past week and really enjoyed it. It was so wonderfully relaxing.


What I’m Writing

Gladwynn Grant Shakes The Family Tree – the third book in my cozy mystery series, which will release in autumn. If you’re not signed up for my newsletter, you might want to do so because I will be offering sneak peeks and actual chapters of the book later this summer.

I am also getting ready to release a Christian fiction romance in August – Cassie, which is part of the Apron Strings Book series .. written by 11 different authors. You can pre-order here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D1VW9TVK

You can find out where to buy all of my books here: https://lisahoweler.com/my-books-2/

Last week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I just finished listening to Around the World in 80 Days on audio, as I mentioned above, and really enjoyed it.

I am also listening to Matthew West because I have been anxious and his music calms me down. In the beginning of June, I drove my son somewhere and said to myself on the way back that I really wanted to listen to Matthew. I said it to myself. I didn’t get the songs ready to play before I pulled out yet.

My mind was just swirling with worries. I had my phone in my hand but hadn’t found the album yet in my music library. Suddenly music started playing and when I looked at my phone it was Matthew West. It was a crazy moment and I think God was like, “you need this, and I can’t wait around for you to do it.”


Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Sunday Bookends: A surprise snow day and heavy and light reading mixed

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 9 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date for this post.

I’ve just sat down to start this post after watching Little Miss and The Husband sled down the hill behind our house after an unexpected snowfall. I’m not sure why I didn’t gather wood today to start a fire since it would have been the perfect day for it, but instead, I sat under a big fluffy blanket and read a book, watched some Lark Rise to Candleford, and watched others out in the snow while I sipped tea. I also cooked some roasted potatoes to go with small steaks The Husband cooked. It was the first time we’d been able to eat roasted potatoes in probably a year since our oven had been broken. It’s been nice to have it fixed.

We added a salad with red peppers to it and it was the perfect dinner.

Later today we plan to have lunch with my parents and then come home to light the fire and have a cozy night before the week starts over again.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Currently Reading:

What book was I reading yesterday? Not really a cozy one, but still very well written – A Walt Longmire Mystery: Hell is Empty by Craig Johnson. I read a couple chapters of it and then moved on to a cozier read in Nellie by Amy Walsh.

Nellie officially released Thursday and is a sweet, cute book about a young woman who pretends to be a cook to get a job to help her family.

Here is a quick description:

Finances are tight for the O’Dwyer family who live on a mountain outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1931. Life gets even harder when their beloved Dadaí must cease work as a coal miner to become a patient at the West Mountain Sanitarium.

Nellie is her preferred name, but family and friends have heard Mam shout “Fenella Aileen O’Dwyer!” all too often with the countless predicaments she got herself into throughout childhood. So, it’s not altogether surprising when Nellie impulsively accepts a job as an assistant cook at the Clarinda House in a case of mistaken identity — though she’s the last person her family would ask to prepare a meal.

Fortunately, along with determination, a talent for acting, and the gift of blarney, Nellie has Mrs. Canfield’s Cookery Book, a treasure she discovered at a Red Cross drought relief sale. As her reluctant admiration for her employer grows, Nellie wishes she could be the truthful woman of faith that Mr. Mason Peale esteems. If she confesses all, will she lose her job along with the friendships she’s formed at Clarinda House?

You can find out more about it HERE    

I should have Nellie finished this week and I will probably start another cozy mystery to offset the darkness of the Longmire book. I forgot that I had planned to start Blessed Is the Busybody by Emilie Richards in early February so I think I will start that this week. I also want to try The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Wittig Albert, but will probably hold off on that one until Spring. It feels more like a spring book.

Recently Finished:

The Cat Who Went Into the Closet by Lilian Jackson Braun

These books can be hit or miss at times but this one, though not heavy-hitting at all, was actually very good.

Up Soon:

Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson

Pocahontas by  Joseph Bruchac (previewing it for Little Miss for school. I also have a choice on the same topic by Jean Fritz.)

The Mystery At Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene.

The Husband is reading a book by Dean Koontz, or was at least.

The Boy is reading Horus Rising by Dan Abott.

Little Miss and I finished The Borrowers this past week. I hope to start another book with her soon but we haven’t decided on which one. We started listening to Caddie Woodlawn by Carold Ryrie Brink the other day on our way to pick up groceries and she is enjoying it but I don’t think it will replace our bedtime listening of The Great Christmas Pageant Ever or Fortunately the Milk.

Friday night she asked me to read to her before bedtime because we’ve been listening to audiobooks. She asked if I would read her part of my book, Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing.

I did but found myself critiquing my writing so it wasn’t as much fun for me. I think tonight I’ll suggest I read her something written by someone else. I’ll even read her The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder again! (If you’re new here, this is a bit of a joke because she wanted me to read her the Little House and Paddington books over and over again last year and the year before.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week I watched the French film Amelie as a buddy watch with Erin at Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

I also watched Lark Rise to Candleford but actually read more this week than watched things.
What I’m Writing

I am continuing to work on Cassie, which releases in August of 2024.

If you want a little sneak peek, you can check out my blog on Friday. I think I might have a little tidbit to offer up from it.

On the blog,I shared:

What I’m Listening to

This week I’ve been listening to Needtobreathe’s Caves.

An audiobook version of In This Mountain by Jan Karon.

A podcast featuring old Jack Benny radio shows.

Photos from Last Week

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Sunday Bookends: arctic temps, still reading the same books (sigh), and binging Northern Exposure

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 17 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.


What’s Been Occurring

I talked a little bit about what’s been occurring yesterday in my Saturday Afternoon Chat. Mainly we’ve been dealing with weird weather of snow and rain and ice and high winds. Today our temps dropped very fast so we will be dealing with arctic temperatures for the whole week.  I will be inside the whole week, other than picking our son up at the bus stop (which is our local convenience store) because I don’t want him to have to walk up the hills to our house in the frigid temps.

I also woke up this morning to find out we have a wind advisory again so now it feels like 16 instead of 28. I was on my way to my parents this afternoon (they’re about eight minutes from our house) but when we saw a tree being removed from the bottom of our street and then another one hanging on a line, across the road and almost to the height of our car, I decided we would pick up my son and head back home to wait for the wind advisory to expire before we try again tomorrow.

We might have been fine but looking around seeing trees smashed along the road, limbs broken in the road and evidence of trees having been chainsawed to clear the roadway, we decided to err on the side of caution.

The Husband dropped some homemade soup I was taking off at my parents so they could at least have lunch.

Tomorrow’s temperatures will be frigid but at least we won’t have to be concerned about trees falling on us while battling the cold.

We have a lot of dead ash trees around us so those are ripe for falling down and causing issues. In the summer my daughter and I were at my parents’ swimming in the pool and one fell down behind my parents’ house in the woods. It wasn’t even windy that day. It just fell over. If it can happen without wind then it can definitely happen in 25 to 45 mph wind gusts.

What I’m/We’re Reading

I’m still reading Little Women and Dysfunction Junction.  I am enjoying both and like to switch off between them. I will probably finish Dysfunction Junction (by Robin W. Pearson) this week.

After that, I’ll be reading The Cat Who Went Into A Closet and The Bungalow Mystery – a Nancy Drew Mystery.

I am also reading Do The New You By Steven Furtick as a Netgalley read which was perfect timing since our online Bible study is going to be reading it in February.

At night Little Miss and I are reading The Borrowers.

What We watched/are Watching

I watched Northern Exposure over 20 years ago (probably) and started watching it again this week. I don’t remember much of anything about it so it’s like watching it for the first time.

It really was well written and holds up pretty well actually.

I also watched Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice for the Jane Austen January feature I’m doing with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. If you want to join in our link-up to discuss all things Jane (including the books) you can find the link up above.

I watched Miss Scarlet and the Duke last week and will probably watch more today and this week since I will be hiding in the house until the weather gets better.

The Husband and I watched the 1978 version of Death on the Nile. It held up pretty well despite Bette Davis looking like she’d come out of a crypt.


What I’m Writing

I am working on Cassie, which releases in August. I hope to have it finished by February. If you are curious what the book will be about, here is a very loose description:

It’s 1995 and 32-year-old Cassie Mason is an actress who made it big on a sitcom in the mid-1980s but hasn’t been able to find a job since the show ended five years ago.

After being fired by her talent agency, Cassie takes her sister Bridget up on her offer for Cassie to come back to their hometown for an extended visit to unwind and regroup.

While there Cassie finds out her younger sister – the one with the handsome husband and three kids and running a farm – is going to open a café and farm store in the small town they grew up near. Cassie decides to stay long enough to help with the grand opening, though she isn’t sure what she can do since she doesn’t know a thing about cooking like her mom and sister and isn’t great at organizing either.

In fact, Cassie isn’t sure what’s she is good at other than acting. Bridget hasn’t been able to help out at the Berrysville Community center like she’d like to with all that has to be done to open the business so she asks Cassie to fill in for a couple of volunteer opportunities. That’s when Cassie finds out that her sister’s neighbor, Alec, isn’t only a small farmer – he’s also someone who knows how to cook and showcases those talents in a weekly cooking class at the community center.

During her visit home, Cassie struggles to figure out not only where she fits in and feels most at home but also to figure out if acting is all she is meant to do with her life or if there is another way God wants to use her talents.

And God? There’s someone else she needs to learn more about on this break from the career she thought she’d always have.

I’ve also been writing blog posts:

What I’m Listening To

This week I have been listening to James Herriot’s Treasury for Children but this upcoming week I will be back to listening to A Tale of Two Cities.

Next week I hope to return to sharing blog posts from other bloggers that I enjoyed from the week. I haven’t been reading as many blogs as I would like to and I’m really looking forward to getting back to that this year.

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Sunday Bookends: Christmas Regency books, watching Christmas movies, and small-town Christmas event

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 16 Comments


It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

What’s Been Occurring

It began to feel even more like Christmas this past week when we had our first, longer-lasting snowfall.

I thought we were only supposed to receive some sleet and freezing rain so I was surprised by the half inch on the ground the next morning.

My daughter was surprised as well and my son was thrilled because the two-hour delay meant he didn’t have to go to his trade school that day since he only goes for two and a half hours.

Little Miss was delighted to play in the snow with her best friend, Zooma the Wonder Dog, and I watched them some and then darted back inside to the warmth.

Inside the house, the Christmas tree is up, the fire is burning in the wood stove, and a cup of hot cocoa awaits.

I’ve never been a fan of extreme temperatures – either too cold or too hot.

The snow was gone by the next morning, which Little Miss was sad about. We thought we might have the chance for more snow Sunday into Monday but, alas, it is now going to be rain only and so much rain it might cause flooding.

We will have to see what happens.

Yesterday Little Miss had two friends over and I took them downtown to our small town’s Christmas event. There wasn’t a ton going on but there was a scavenger hunt that took them to several businesses in town to find photos of an elf and see what the elf was doing in each photo. They then had to write on the slip of paper what the elf was doing and return it to where they started for a prize. The prize was a York Peppermint Patty which I didn’t think was a very exciting prize for all that running around. The kids weren’t that impressed either but were okay with it. Little Miss doesn’t like peppermint but luckily I had some chocolate at home for her.

The town also had mini-fire pits set up throughout the town with s’mores kits for people to use, which I thought was a super cute idea.

Earlier in the day they had an ice carver, a cookie walk, and several vendors available in the one main building.

They also offered a semi-alive nativity display, which cracked me up when I read the title of it in the paper. Turns out that Mary and Joseph and Jesus and the wise men were cardboard cutouts but the animals were real. Little Miss was very disappointed she couldn’t pet the animals and grumbled about it the rest of the day.

We ended our jaunt downtown with some playtime at the tiny playground.

The library also had a used book sale during the event and unlike other times when I’ve come out of there with way too many books, I only came out with three and a DVD about World War II. One, they didn’t have a very exciting selection, and two I got way too many last time, and many of them I didn’t enjoy.

The books I picked up were another Nancy Drew:

This one by Brock Thoene (I’ve enjoyed books by him and his wife, Brodie, in the past):

And this middle-school-aged book that looked interesting to me and hopefully will be a good one for Little Miss later:

Our neighbors have added some extra lights to their Christmas display this year. For several years in a row they have won the town’s Christmas light contest, but last year they were unseated. My mom thinks they are trying to win it back this year since the husband has added another set of lights.

My dad gave us their old nativity set so all we have in our yard is a very subtle display and I’m okay with that. We can simply enjoy the neighbors and wait for the day the husband becomes Clark Griswold.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Last week I finished The Spectacular by Fiona Davis. I did not think it was spectacular, but it was okay.

I liked the story itself but I did not like the style of writing.

This week I am diving into Christmas books.

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs told me about these Regency Romance books she would read every Christmas so I ordered one from Thriftbooks and it came this week so I started it yesterday.

It’s called Regency Christmas Wishes with novellas by five different authors.

Keeping with the Christmas theme, I’m also re-reading A Walt Longmire Christmas: Christmas in Absaroka by Craig Johnson.

Next I’ll be reading Southern Snow: A Sugartree Winter Romance by B.R. Goodwin.

I’m also still reading a chapter or two of Little Women but I left it at my parents so I won’t be able to read that until I get it back from them.

The Boy and I are putting The Tale of Two Cities aside for this month as we are both not focusing well on it. We will either restart it in January or put it off altogether until his senior year. I remember struggling through this book my sophomore year but really liking it once I got into it so I am sure once we can focus better (and buy cliff notes to figure out what he is talking about) we will be able to get through it.

This week we will be reading from books about World War II and I will be looking for books or material about World War I as I feel it is a war that isn’t as focused on as much.

Little Miss and are listening to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson at night. I am also reading Christmas stories by Louisa May Alcott and L.M. Montgomery to her.

The Husband is reading In the Blood by Jack Carr.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week I watched Holiday Affair (1949), a couple episodes of Still Standing (a Canadian show) with The Husband, Signed, Sealed, And Delivered Christmas, and a couple episodes of Evening Shade.



What I’m Writing

I’m still working on Cassie and wrote maybe 4,000 words this week.

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening to

On Tuesday when I went outside to photograph the freshly fallen snow and listened to Michael Buble’s Christmas album but otherwise I haven’t listened to much this past week.

Photos from Last Week

I shared a couple of photos above but here are a few more from last week.

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

Here are a few posts I enjoyed this week:

Songs of the Season 2023 – Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee

I Played Secretary Today by Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian

I Played Secretary Today

The Last Year We Decorated Christmas Cookies With My Mom by Deb Nancy at Reader Buzz

A quick reminder that Erin and I still have a linky open for anyone who wants to join in our Comfy, Christmas Link Up. The link up will be open until January 2.

Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

The Cuckoo’s Calling almost made me Cuckoo and the week in review

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 4 Comments

(This post is part of Readerbuzz’s Sunday Salon).

I promised a couple of weeks ago I would finish The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (pseudonym for J.K. Rowling) and I finally did it. I was determined to finish the book because it was a different type of book for me and one my husband suggested.

For anyone who is a fan of clean fiction, with positive and cheerful stories of loving people — this is not the book for you. I didn’t count them but I would say there are about 300 uses of the “F” word and about 1,000 semicolons and 100 parentheses.  This isn’t my usual type of read, as I said above, but it was well-written (even if I don’t think the excessive curse words were necessary).

I guess J.K. Rowling was making sure she shook off any Potter fans with this crime novel debut, using the Galbraith pseudonym and the fictitious author bio in the back of the book.  I wouldn’t call the book a fast read by any means. At 466 (or more) pages, the book is definitely dense and full of detail I often found unnecessary. However, the extra information was entertainingly written so I didn’t mind that J.K. rambled on a bit in places. It’s not like I’m the queen of being succinct, as anyone who has read my blog knows.

51VB32EnfTLI’m not sure if I’ll continue with books 2-4 of the Cormoran Strike series, though my husband said he especially enjoyed book four (and strongly disliked book three). I enjoy crime fiction but sometimes the gritty stories filled with ridiculous uses of swear words (especially the f-word), are not my cup of tea (pun totally intended since this book was based in London).

As for finishing The Hobbit, another goal I have for November, I’m not there yet, but I did advance further in the book this past week. My son, for his part, is almost done with the book and will be writing a book report for it this week.

I’m still reading through two Mitford books – re-reading A Light in the Window (because it’s been so long and I love the love story of Father Tim and Cynthia) and reading A Light from Heaven, which I somehow never read when I was going through the series. I also never read “Home to Holly Springs” which was a Father Tim novel. It was supposed to be the first of others but I don’t think Jan Karon ever wrote any other Father Tim novels and now in her 80s, she has ended the series. I plan to tackle Home to Holly Springs after I finish these two Mitford books and The Hobbit.

I’ve been watching Shakespeare and Hathaway, a light crime series that takes place in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England to keep my mind off the stress of house hunting and house selling. The main characters are a man and woman private detective team. The man, Frank Hathaway, was the private detective to start with, after being kicked off the police force and the woman, Luella Shakespeare, sort of fell into the profession when she hired Frank to investigate her fiance and then stayed on to help him at his office.

shakespeare-and-hathaway-private-investigators

The episodes feature some humor with drama mixed in but they are fairly light and void of any topics that are too dark, which was a nice reprieve after reading through The Cuckoo’s Calling.

As for my writing quest, I’m in the middle of writing the sequel to A Story to Tell, and I’m sharing the chapters here on the blog each Friday for Fiction Friday. I’m also offering others a chance to link any fiction they have written on their blogs every Friday. If you share fiction on your blog, please feel free to join me this Friday and share your links.

Speaking of fiction, if you haven’t checked out Lunch Break Fiction, I highly suggest you do. It’s one of my favorite blogs out there these days.

So what are you up to this week? What are you reading or watching? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to know!

 

Looking back at October ahead to November, reading and otherwise

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 20 Comments

I actually managed to finish a couple of books in October and start a couple more.

I don’t read as fast as others who share and link up on Readerbuzz’s Sunday Salon and Caffeinated Reviewer’s Sunday Post and The Book Date’s, What Are You Reading post, but I enjoy the books I do read so I figure it’s all good. I read them in between working on my own stories, homeschooling a 12-year old and 5-year old, cooking dinner, editing photos for stock photography, and occasionally cleaning the house (being a housewife is not necessarily my calling).

I won’t have as much time for reading this month since I’ve decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month and hopefully finish the sequel to A Story to Tell and maybe even make progress on Fully Alive.

I’m ahead of the game for NaNoWriMo since I already have 27,000 words for A New Beginning and about 14,000 for A Fully Alive but both books need a lot of work, plot and character development.

But I do plan to read some books this month and on the list to either start or finish include:

  • The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (to finish)
  • Light from Heaven by Jan Karon (to finish because I just started it)
  • The Misadventures of Tumbleweed Thompson by Glen McCarty (starting. It’s a middle school book for my son’s homeschool group book discussion).
  • The Hobbit (I know! I’m still reading it! I’m pathetic!)
  • All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot (to finish)
  • The Dog That Whispered by Jim Kraus (to start)
  • Just Me On This by Donald Westlake (to start)
  • Leota’s Garden by Francine Rivers (to finish)

Books I finished in October:

  • In this Mountain by Jan Karon
  • Memphis & Me by Diane Moody
  • The Runaway Pastor’s Wife by Diane Moody

I’m also reading Paddington Marches On by Michael Bond and Stuart Little by EB White with my 5-year old daughter at night. I love when she asks me to read to her to help her fall asleep, though it is frustrating when she falls asleep in the middle of the story and I want to know what happened. I can never figure out if I should wait to finish the story with her the next night or finish it. (Both books are broke into individual stories.) Sometimes I just go ahead and finish it and read it again the next night.

Our autumn leaves were pretty much completely annihilated by heavy wind and rain this week but we found these cool leaves I have never seen in my life in Pennsylvania at a playground near us.

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I have no idea what tree they are from but they were awesome. My daughter wasn’t really into throwing the leaves up in the air for me to take photographs but my son helped a couple of times.

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We had stopped at the playground after a funeral for my husband’s great aunt, who passed away at the age of 90 last Sunday. I was ready to go home since when I drove to the funeral I realized I had forgotten some photo albums my husband’s cousin had wanted and had to drive 15 miles back to my house and 15 miles back down to give her the albums. But my children don’t play at playgrounds as often as they used to so I took some photographs of them and then sat in the van reading Jan Karon while they played with a couple of little girls who had come to the playground as well.

Coming up this month my son and husband both have birthdays (my son will be 13 on Thursday and my husband will be … a certain age .. later in the month) and my brother and his wife celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary (on the same day as my husband’s birthday). We don’t have anything super exciting planned for November beyond recognizing those milestones. We will be plowing forward on homeschooling for both children and hunting for a house closer to my husband’s job and my parents during the month as well. I am planning a post later about house hunting. The post will be entitled “The soul-sucking process of house hunting.”

As for what I was watching in October, I watched a lot of a British sitcom called One Foot in the Grave (but Amazon only offers up to season three thorough Britbox so I may look for a DVD collection that can be played on American DVD players) and also watched Paul: Apostle of Christ, which I rambled about here.

On my blog in October, some of the subjects I rambled about were: autumn, a little about books and movies, and a bit about writing fiction.

I also blogged about:

For Fiction Friday in October I shared:

On my blog this month I’ll be continuing to share A New Beginning, the sequel to A Story To Tell, for Fiction Friday every week, or at least every other week. I’m sure I’ll ramble some more about my children and I’m sure I’ll share more photographs of whatever I see throughout the month. I’ll probably blog about what I’m reading or lessons learned during NaNoWriMo and maybe even some insights on God (because, you know, I’m someone people turn to for thoughts on God. Har. Har.).

So, how about you? What are you reading, watching, or up to?

 

Fry bread, Smoke Signals and cat mysteries. Or what I’m reading this week

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 13 Comments

Here we are to Sunday Salon, where bloggers share mainly what they’ve been reading and sometimes what they’ve been watching and doing. Want to get involved? Feel free to link up to Readerbuzz’s Sunday Salon post (which is usually up by Saturday).

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We made Navajo fry bread for homeschool a couple of weeks ago which made me think immediately of this scene from Smoke Signals:

That meant looking up the movie and finding it for free on Hulu, so we watched it as the family movie for my birthday. In case you’re interested in the movie, I’ll leave a link to the trailer. It is based on a short story called This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” from Sherman Alexie’s book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993).

In my son’s textbook, they called it flatbread, but I’d always heard it called frybread. My first attempt at making it with the kids wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t the worst either. We hope to try it again soon, even though I personally can’t eat gluten (I won’t lie, I did try some of the fry bread and I paid for it with some achy muscles the next day, but not as bad as it could have been.)

As for what I have read or am reading right now:

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I started The Runaway Pastor’s Wife by Diane Moody, a self-published author I discovered, that my mom and I are really enjoying and who was sweet enough to answer me by email when I had some questions for her this week. I’m really enjoying the book. It’s fast-paced but also weaves a lot of thoughtful sections about the struggles both pastors and their wives face while serving in ministry.

I first discovered her husband, McMillian Moody, on Kindle Unlimited with his Elmo Jenkins series. I’m in the first book of that series and I’m not catching on to his book as quickly as I did The Runaway Pastor’s Wife. Diane’s one book series about World War II is based on her father’s time during the war, when he dropped from planes for people in Holland. I’m looking forward to delving into those books soon, especially since she will be releasing the fourth book in that series in 2020.  I need to hurry and read the books, though, because my mom rips through books at high speed and she keeps returning the books in Kindle Unlimited before I get to them (we are on a joint account). Seriously, I can get them back later, but come on, Mooom! Slow down.

51xr-HD6D7L._SY346_I’m in the middle of another book, Murder in Cherry Hills by Paige Sleuth (real name Marla Bradeen), who is another self-published author. So far the book is carrying me along quickly. It is about a woman (Katherine Harper) whose neighbor is murdered and she starts to investigate it, even though the police, including a childhood friend who has turned all hunky, are already investigating it. Katherine is a former foster child and that aspect is woven into the story as well.

I just need to find some time to read it and finish it since I’ve also been writing my own book (the follow up to A Story to Tell, which is out on Amazon Kindle now), homeschooling my children, cooking dinner, and pretending I’m an actual housewife.

Also on the reading list, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein. Fantasy isn’t always my thing, but I am reading it with my son for his English for homeschool.

On the watch list lately has been Lark Rise to Candleford on Britbox (through Amazon). I’ve already watched Season 1 and am on to Season 2. I understand the series is based on a series of books, which I plan to look up at some point. I don’t watch a ton of television so I usually watch one series with a couple episodes a day and then go on to another series.

I also rarely go to the movies but a friend invited me to see Brittany Runs a Marathon at our local theater (which was a shock, because our smalltown theater rarely shows movies that are more independent). It was pretty good. Language and sexually suggestive moments warning for anyone who is bothered by those types of aspects in a movie. I could have done without some of the language and the sexually suggestive portions, because I don’t know that they added anything to the movie, but it was still a good (and inspiring) movie (and, forgive me if I offend you with not being impressed with the F-word being used so much. I’m a bit of a prude at times 😉 ) I’ll leave you with a trailer for the movie, in case you want to check it out. I would imagine it will be up on Amazon before long, since it was produced by Amazon.

As for what I’ve been doing, I rambled a little bit about that on the blog on the following posts:

Grumpy posts and a busy weekend

I found some old photos and it was the most exciting thing that happened to me all week

Our Homeschooling Journey So Far This School Year

I also rambled a little about self-publishing on THIS POST.

How about all of you? What are you reading, watching, writing, doing? Let me know in the comments or add a link to a recent blog post that covers those subjects.

What I’ve been reading (suspense and meandering southern tales), and watching (vets in the English country side), and doing (not much)

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 15 Comments

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I usually read something light before bed but I’ve been having a hard time putting down Taken by Dee Henderson. It’s listed as a Christian suspense novel but the faith conversations are not too overt or cheesy. The story is captivating, yet also hard to read because of the subject. It surrounds the story of a 27-year old woman who was held captive for 11 years after being kidnapped at the age of 16 near her home in Chicago. She enlists the help of a retired Boston police officer, now private investigator, Matthew Danes, whose own daughter was kidnapped at one point and returned to him eight years later.

Together the two try to bring down the people who kidnapped her and also ran a child abduction and burglary ring. The story definitely isn’t light as Shannon, the woman, deals with her abduction but also some surprises in her family since she’s been missing. I found myself both disturbed and intrigued by the story but learned I needed to put it down before bed or I would have unpleasant dreams. Or more unpleasant than other nights. However, one night this week I didn’t read it before bed and I dreamt I was hanging out with Paris Hilton, so maybe I shouldn’t read lighter things at night.

As a writer myself, I don’t like to be critical of books, knowing a lot of hard work put into them but honestly there were entire chapters I would have completely dropped from Taken. There were definitely unnecessary parts written that did not move the story forward. One of those was a huge, unrealistic section about how much money a person could make from photographs of landscapes. Take it from this photographer, very few photographers are raking in millions for landscape images. The author probably should have done a little more research there. Or she did do some research and there is an untapped market out there that I’m completely missing out on because I don’t have an art agent. That’s always a possibility.

All in all it was a good book, but I’ll be cleaning my pallet with some different types of books this week – mainly The Hobbit, which my son and I are reading for his homeschool. I’m very behind on that but he’s cheating by listening to a reading of it I found on YouTube while reading along.

68251I’m also still in book two of the James Herriott books and watching the BBC show All Creatures Great and Small, which Amazon just included with our Britbox subscription. I haven’t watched the show since I was a teen so it’s fun for me to watch now that I’m older, though the makers of the show definitely made the show very realistic and graphic when it came to caring for the animals. I’m going to have to Google and see if those actors actually had to stick their hands up the rear ends of cows and pigs and horses for some of those scenes. While looking for a photo to go with this post, I saw that they are rebooting the series for PBS. I don’t plan to watch it as I think the original was so true to the books, especially the actor who played Siegfried.

I finished Book 6 of the Mitford Series, In This Mountain, and still have two books in the series that I haven’t read – Light From Heaven and Home to Holly Springs. Like I’ve said before I enjoy the Mitford books because they really are a meandering walk through the lives of the people of Mitford. Jan Karon really takes her time building up her characters through little snippets of their lives. There are a lot of characters too; so many that sometimes it is a little hard to keep up with them. I like having so many characters to get to know, though. My mom once said you can pick up a Mitford book and feel almost like you are coming home because of how endearing the characters are. You can also pick up any of the books and read them again and again and see something new every time because they are so dense.

In between reading books and watching shows based off books, I’m in the midst of rewriting and tightening my novel ‘A Story to Tell‘ which I have been featuring on the blog on Fridays and plan to publish for fun on Kindle next week. I’m also working on the follow-up to the story which I’ve tentatively entitled “Waking Up.” Soon someone will come across my writing and do to it what I just did to Dee Henderson’s. Ouch. I probably won’t enjoy that but I also recognize we have different tastes and just because we don’t like one aspect of a person’s writing style, doesn’t mean we don’t like their work overall. I should remind myself that I didn’t say I didn’t like Dee’s writing – I do like it. I just felt part of the descriptions and long pieces of dialogue were unnecessary but others may have found it was needed.

In between writing and reading (and watching) I’ve also been homeschooling my children (as mentioned above) and editing photos for my stock photography accounts (of which I make a little money with so I keep plugging away at it).

On my reading list for the next couple of weeks (a bit eclectic):

  • Fear is A Liar by Dr. Daniel B. Lancaster
  • Of Windmills and War by Diane Moody
  • Lead Me, Holy Spirit: Longing to Hear the Voice of God by Stormie Omartian
  • The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling).

Some of the posts I’ve featured since I last posted an update for Sunday Salon include:

So how about all of you? What are you reading, watching, or up to these days? Let me know in the comments and if you are participating in the Sunday Salon on Readerbuzz’s blog (which this post is part of) leave me your link.